Kiff (TV series)

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Kiff
Information
Genre	Buddy comedy Musical Slice of life
Creators	Lucy Heavens Nic Smal
Voices of	Kimiko Glenn H. Michael Croner Eric Bauza Lauren Ash James Monroe Iglehart Tom Kenny
Seasons	1 (aired) 3 (ordered)
Episodes	32
Segments	64
Premiere	"Thirst to Be the First"/"The Fourth Bath"
Opening theme	"Kiff Main Title Theme"
Ending theme	"Kiff End Credit Theme"
Theme music composers	Nic Smal Brad Breeck
Production
Executive producers	Nic Smal Lucy Heavens Chris Prynoski Shannon Pryonski Antonio Canobbio Ben Kalina
Producers	Kent Osborne (co-producer) Winnie Chaffee (supervising) Kayla Reid (line) Matt Burns (line)
Production companies	Titmouse, Inc. Disney Television Animation Yearim (overseas animation)
Running time	22 minutes
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Network	Disney Channel Disney XD Disney+ (streaming)
Release date	March 10, 2023 – present

Kiff is an animated comedy TV series created by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal. It is produced by Titmouse, Inc. and Disney Television Animation, and premiered on March 10, 2023.

Premise

The series follows Kiff Chatterley, an optimistic squirrel whose best intentions often lead to complete chaos, and her best friend Barry Buns, a sweet and mellow bunny. Set in the bustling city of Table Town, Cape Town, South Africa, where animals and magical creatures live together in harmony, the series features the duo as they take the town by storm with their endless adventures and zest for life.

Production

In 2017, creators Nic Smal and Lucy Heavens first met each-other when they were animators for Triggerfish Animation Studios, as the duo claimed that they 'spoke the same comedy language'. Conception for the series began in December 2017, with two protagonists being created; a squirrel named Donk and a rabbit named Bunny Guiness. and was eventually optioned by Disney five months later, after other pitches to various animation enterprises, such as Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna Barbera Studios Europe, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon and Netflix, failed. At some point between the show's optioning and eventual announcement, a pilot episode featuring Donk and Bunny, who were already cast and voiced by Kimiko Glenn and H. Michael Croner, respectively, was created.

The show was announced in June 2021, now titled Kiff, and Glenn and Croner were publicly revealed to be the voices of the now renamed Kiff and Barry, respectively, in October 2022. Sam Riegel serves as the show's voice director. Writing for the main series began in July 2021 and ended in August 2023. Production on Season 2 started a month prior.

Kiff was inspired both by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal's childhoods in Cape Town, South Africa, and by various animated series, with The Simpsons cited as a major influence. The primary location of the series, Table Town, is named for Cape Town's Table Mountain, and the school Kiff and Barry go to is modeled after Smal's primary school.

Smal has stated the writers often draw from life experience when brainstorming for ideas, whether they be childhood memories or inspired by things that happened to them as adults. Heavens and Smal value the show's positivity, and state they try not to make the series too cynical or sarcastic. The animation is co-produced by Titmouse in New York City and Yearim in Seoul, South Korea, and is done in a two dimensional and hand drawn style; the only digital process used for the series is Toon Boom Harmony, which scans the drawings and also colors them.

Every episode of the show begins with a title card on a billboard, and has a "sponsor", an advertisement placed on the aforementioned billboard for an establishment or item that appears at some point in the episode. These are typically businesses or products, but can also be simple concepts (such as art, in "Ghost Wolf's Art"). In an interview, Heavens and Smal explained that as they were developing the series the two realized the wide variety of jobs the characters had, and began the opening sponsor gag in response to that.

Kiff also features one musical number for each episode, with a diverse number of genres, such as pop and rock, being utilized. Heavens and Smal stated in a 2023 interview that they see the songs as different parts of the human psyche, and their ability to help motivate the episodes.

Kimiko Glenn noted in a 2023 interview that she and H. Michael Croner are allowed to go off-script and improvise during recording sessions. When Glenn auditioned as Kiff, she was tasked with singing various songs, as music and songs are a crucial part of the series.

Voice cast

Main articles: List of characters and List of Species

Cast list adapted from Animation Magazine.

Main cast

• Kimiko Glenn as Kiff Chatterley
• H. Michael Croner as Barry Buns

Supporting cast

• James Monroe Iglehart as Martin Chatterley
• Lauren Ash as Beryl Chatterley and Beverly
• Deedee Magno Hall as Miss Deer Teacher
• Eugene Cordero as The Pone and Secretary Prince
• Josh Johnson as Harry Buns
• Eric Bauza as Roy Fox, Reggie, Lance Contract and Billiam
• Vella Lovell as Candle Fox
• Steve Little as Glarbin Gloobin
• Kent Osborne as Sweepy Steve
• Mary Mack as Renée du Bedat
• Tom Kenny as Trevor Angstrom, Gareth, Darryn, and Markus Plue
• Nichole Sakura as Terri Buns
• Rachel House as Mary Buns
• Lucy Heavens as Helen
• Nic Smal as Principal Secretary
• Andy Merrill as Pat Chatterley
• Andy Daly as Scarm Scaremly
• Jimmy Fowlie as Tarryn Plue and Tyler

Episodes

Main article: List of episodes

Reception

Kiff received highly positive reviews, with praise going toward its animation, morals, characters, songs, faithfulness, constant callbacks to previous episodes, and voice acting, particularly from Kimiko Glenn, James Monroe Iglehart, Nic Smal and Eric Bauza. On IMDb, 83% of 719 ratings were positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10; the average rating of an episode on the site is 8.2/10.

Matthew Aguilar of ComicBook.com asserted, "Those who watch will soon find themselves transported to a delightful animated world full of hilarious scenarios that always find a way to also be relatable." Joel Keller of Decider wrote, "Kiff is lots of surreal fun, with a warm friendship at its center. Most of all, parents will enjoy it for its smart humor almost as much as their kids will enjoy the colors, sounds, and pratfalls." Ashley Moulton of Common Sense Media compared Kiff favorably to Australia's Bluey "with its simultaneous imagination and real-life truisms". She wrote that Kiff "pays loving tribute to childhood friendships" and complimented its visual style and moments of mature humor, concluding, "The whole family can enjoy the quirky characters and the ridiculous situations they find themselves in." and gave the series a grade of four out of five stars, praised the depiction of positive messages and role models, citing the presence of characters demonstrating kindness, and said, "Quirky buddy comedy celebrates kid friendships."

Kiff was placed at the #10 spot in DirecTV's "Top 10 Cartoons for Kids on TV" list countdown.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
2023	Children's and Family Emmy Awards	Outstanding Main Title and Graphics	Kiff	Nominated
		Outstanding Voice Directing for an Animated Series	Sam Riegel	Nominated
2024		Children's or Young Teen Animated Series	Kiff	Nominated
		Original Song for a Children's or Young Teen Program	"Things"	Nominated

International release

Country	Language	Original network	Premiere date
Canada	English	Disney Channel	March 10, 2023
United Kingdom	English	Disney+	March 29, 2023
Ireland
Australia	English	Disney+	April 5, 2023
New Zealand
Portugal	Portuguese	Disney Channel	May 15, 2023
Angola
Mozambique
Taiwan	Chinese Cantonese Mandarin	Disney+	May 17, 2023
Hong Kong
Spain	European Spanish	Disney+ Disney Channel	May 20, 2023
Andorra
Latin America	Latin Spanish	Disney+ Disney Channel	June 7, 2023 (Disney+) September 11, 2023 (Disney Channel)
	Brazilian Portuguese
South Korea	Korean	Disney+	June 14, 2023
Israel	Hebrew	Disney Channel	June 25, 2023
Philippines	English	Disney+	July 17, 2023
Italy	Italian	Disney+	July 24, 2023
Turkey	Turkish	Disney+	July 29, 2023
MENA	English	Disney Channel	August 21, 2023
	Arabic
	Greek
	Swedish
	Finnish
	Norwegian
Netherlands	Dutch, French	Disney Channel	September 4, 2023
Belgium
France	French	Disney Channel	September 9, 2023
Luxembourg
Switzerland
Haiti
Japan	Japanese	Disney Channel	September 30, 2023
Central and eastern Europe	Bulgarian	Disney Channel	October 2, 2023
	Czech
	Hungarian
	Romanian
	Polish
Slovakia	Slovakian	Disney+
Quebec	French	La Chaîne Disney (Disney Channel)	March 2, 2024

Trivia

• This is the first Disney TVA animated show to premiere episodes simultaneously on Disney Channel and Disney XD.
• This is Kimiko Glenn's third animated series voicing the protagonist after Centaurworld and Baby Shark's Big Show!.
• This is the fifth animated Disney Channel Original Series to have been Co-Created (following Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, Big City Greens, and The Ghost and Molly McGee).
• This is the first Disney TVA show that is produced entirely in New York City, Titmouse NY (which is a unionized east coast location) is the studio that made it.
• In the Hungarian dub of the series, a majority of the students at Table Town Middle School are voiced by children and teenagers, with Barry and Trevor being notable examples.
• As of October 2024, the series has yet to receive a German dub, or to release in Germany or Austria in any way; it is likely due to the definition of Kiff's name in the language, meaning "smoke weed".
  • Despite this, nine episodes of the series are available to stream on Disney+ outside of the aforementioned countries with German subtitles.

Videos

Kiff Theme Song - NEW SERIES - @disneychannel

Kiff Teaser - NEW SERIES 💥 - Disney Channel Animation